Lucky Thompson
Encyclopedia
Eli "Lucky" Thompson was a United States jazz
tenor and soprano saxophonist. While John Coltrane usually receives the most credit for bringing the soprano saxophone out of obsolescence in the early 60s, Lucky Thompson, along with Steve Lacy
, played it in a more advanced bebop format.
After playing with the swing orchestras of Lionel Hampton
, Don Redman
, Billy Eckstine
, Lucky Millinder
, and Count Basie
, he worked in rhythm and blues
and then established a career in bop
and hard bop
, working with Kenny Clarke
, Miles Davis
, Dizzy Gillespie
and Milt Jackson
. Thompson was an inspired soloist capable of a very personal style in which the tradition of Coleman Hawkins
, Ben Webster
and Don Byas
was intelligently mixed with a modern grasp of harmony. He showed these capabilities as sideman on many albums recorded during the mid-1950s, such as Stan Kenton
's Cuban Fire!
, and those under his own name. He appeared on Charlie Parker
's Los Angeles Dial Records
sessions and on Miles Davis’s hard bop
Walkin session. Thompson recorded albums as leader for ABC Paramount
and Prestige
and as a sideman on records for Savoy Records
with Milt Jackson
as leader.
He lived in Lausanne, Switzerland in the late 1960s and recorded several albums there including A Lucky Songbook in Europe. He was married to Thelma Thompson, who died in 1963. He taught at Dartmouth College
in 1973 and 1974, then left the music business completely, . In his last years he lived in the Pacific Northwest and suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. His son, guitarist Daryl Thompson, played with Peter Tosh
and Black Uhuru
before embarking on a jazz career in the late 1980s.
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
tenor and soprano saxophonist. While John Coltrane usually receives the most credit for bringing the soprano saxophone out of obsolescence in the early 60s, Lucky Thompson, along with Steve Lacy
Steve Lacy
Steve Lacy , born Steven Norman Lackritz in New York City, was a jazz saxophonist and composer recognized as one of the important players of soprano saxophone....
, played it in a more advanced bebop format.
After playing with the swing orchestras of Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
, Don Redman
Don Redman
Donald Matthew Redman was an American jazz musician, arranger, bandleader and composer.Redman was announced as a member of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame on May 6, 2009....
, Billy Eckstine
Billy Eckstine
William Clarence Eckstine was an American singer of ballads and a bandleader of the swing era. Eckstine's smooth baritone and distinctive vibrato broke down barriers throughout the 1940s, first as leader of the original bop big-band, then as the first romantic black male in popular...
, Lucky Millinder
Lucky Millinder
Lucius Venable "Lucky" Millinder was an American rhythm and blues and swing bandleader. Although he could not read or write music, did not play an instrument and rarely sang, his showmanship and musical taste made his bands successful...
, and Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
, he worked in rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
and then established a career in bop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
and hard bop
Hard bop
Hard bop is a style of jazz that is an extension of bebop music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz which incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano...
, working with Kenny Clarke
Kenny Clarke
Kenny Clarke , born Kenneth Spearman Clarke, nicknamed "Klook" and later known as Liaqat Ali Salaam, was a jazz drummer and an early innovator of the bebop style of drumming...
, Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
, Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
and Milt Jackson
Milt Jackson
Milton "Bags" Jackson was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms...
. Thompson was an inspired soloist capable of a very personal style in which the tradition of Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn"...
, Ben Webster
Ben Webster
Benjamin Francis Webster , a.k.a. "The Brute" or "Frog," was an influential American jazz tenor saxophonist. Webster, born in Kansas City, Missouri, was considered one of the three most important "swing tenors" along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young...
and Don Byas
Don Byas
Carlos Wesley "Don" Byas was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, long-resident in Europe.- Oklahoma and Los Angeles :...
was intelligently mixed with a modern grasp of harmony. He showed these capabilities as sideman on many albums recorded during the mid-1950s, such as Stan Kenton
Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....
's Cuban Fire!
Cuban Fire!
Cuban Fire! is an album recorded by Stan Kenton and his orchestra in 1956. This has become one of the most influential Latin jazz, large ensemble recordings of all time; it was a first for the Kenton big band in terms of popularity, style, and overall album theme...
, and those under his own name. He appeared on Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
's Los Angeles Dial Records
Dial Records
Dial Records has been the name of at least four different record labels in the 20th century:* Dial Records – a US based company.* Dial Records – a US based company.* Dial Records – a US based company....
sessions and on Miles Davis’s hard bop
Hard bop
Hard bop is a style of jazz that is an extension of bebop music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz which incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano...
Walkin session. Thompson recorded albums as leader for ABC Paramount
ABC Records
ABC Records was an American record label, founded in New York City in 1955 as ABC-Paramount Records. It originated as the main popular music label operated the Am-Par Record Corporation, the music subsidiary of the American Broadcasting Company . ABC-Paramount Records' first president was Samuel H....
and Prestige
Prestige Records
Prestige Records was a jazz record label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The company was located at 203 South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them under the names of several...
and as a sideman on records for Savoy Records
Savoy
Savoy is a region of France. It comprises roughly the territory of the Western Alps situated between Lake Geneva in the north and Monaco and the Mediterranean coast in the south....
with Milt Jackson
Milt Jackson
Milton "Bags" Jackson was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms...
as leader.
He lived in Lausanne, Switzerland in the late 1960s and recorded several albums there including A Lucky Songbook in Europe. He was married to Thelma Thompson, who died in 1963. He taught at Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
in 1973 and 1974, then left the music business completely, . In his last years he lived in the Pacific Northwest and suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. His son, guitarist Daryl Thompson, played with Peter Tosh
Peter Tosh
Peter Tosh, born Winston Hubert McIntosh , was a Jamaican reggae musician who was a core member of the band The Wailers , and who afterward had a successful solo career as well as being a promoter of Rastafari.Peter Tosh was born in Grange Hill, Jamaica, an illegitimate child to a mother too young...
and Black Uhuru
Black Uhuru
Black Uhuru are a Jamaican reggae group formed in 1972, initially as Uhuru . The group has undergone several line-up changes over the years, with Duckie Simpson always maintaining group control and ownership...
before embarking on a jazz career in the late 1980s.
Discography
- 1956: Brown Rose Xanadu RecordsXanadu RecordsXanadu Records was a jazz music record label specializing in bebop throughout the 1970s and 1980s founded by Don Schlitten, recording and issuing recordings by some legendary names in jazz music.-Discography:...
- 1961: Lord, Lord, Am I Ever Gonna Know? Candid RecordsCandid RecordsCandid Records was founded as a subsidiary of Archie Bleyer's Cadence label in New York City in 1960. The jazz writer and civil rights activist, Nat Hentoff, worked as the label's A&R director, aiming to create a representative catalog of the jazz of the day...
- 1964: Lucky Strikes Original Jazz ClassicsOriginal Jazz ClassicsOriginal Jazz Classics was started in 1983 as an imprint of Fantasy Records. Under this name facsimiles of original editions of jazz LPs have been reissued on CD and formerly on LP and cassette also. The LPs were originally released on Riverside, Prestige and other labels that had been purchased...
- 1965: Happy Days Prestige RecordsPrestige RecordsPrestige Records was a jazz record label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The company was located at 203 South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them under the names of several...
- 1970: Body & Soul Nessa RecordsNessa Records-Discography:*n-1 Lester Bowie - Numbers 1 & 2 *n-2 Roscoe Mitchell - Congliptious...
- 2000: Paris Blue Concord JazzConcord JazzConcord Jazz is a subsidiary of Concord Records, owned by Concord Music Group.-Dozens of albums:*Charlie Byrd*Ruby Braff*Dave McKenna*Marian McPartland*Rosemary Clooney*Scott Hamilton*Tito Puente*George Shearing*Gene Harris*Mel Tormé*Monty Alexander...
with Sammy Price - 2000: Modern Jazz Group Sunnyside RecordsSunnyside RecordsSunnyside Records is an American jazz record label.Sunnyside was founded in 1982 by Francois Zalacain and Christine Berthet. Its early releases consisted primarily of piano solo material and ensembles without drums, but in later years has broadened its selection of material.-Artists who have...
- 2001: Jazz in Paris Sunnyside RecordsSunnyside RecordsSunnyside Records is an American jazz record label.Sunnyside was founded in 1982 by Francois Zalacain and Christine Berthet. Its early releases consisted primarily of piano solo material and ensembles without drums, but in later years has broadened its selection of material.-Artists who have...
with Dave Pochonet All Stars - 2003: Home Comin